A Bose® Wave Radio, model AWR1-1W, just came through the shop for a repair. The radio had been working okay all these years but had recently stopped receiving any stations and instead was just making a low buzzing noise.

This radio is a surprisingly serviceable design. Remove 4 screws from the bottom, and it flips open like a clamshell with the speakers and display in the top and mainboard on the bottom.

It’s a surprisingly serviceable design.

Four more screws and two clips later, the main power transformer lifts away and the board comes out. Visual inspection showed that most of the small black capacitors had leaked badly down their leads and were very corroded. One rectifier diode was also corroded from a near-by capacitor. The analog circuitry will work for a while with degrading capacitors, but eventually enough fail to prevent normal circuit operation and it all comes apart. Fortunately, it was an easy enough fix.

Fortunately, a capacitor job was all it needed and it came back to life sounding great!